Telephones are ubiquitous in modern society and are used by millions of people on a daily basis. Remarkably, despite the popularity of telephones, the telephone interface has remained relatively the same for decades. In order to place a telephone call, users must remember, or have access to the number they wish to call, and manually key the number into the telephone unit using a keypad. Remembering phone numbers and repeatedly manually keying these numbers without error are cumbersome, if not annoying obstacles to efficient communication. Perhaps these obstacles are best illustrated in the context of accessing calling card plans.
Calling card plans allow users of the plans to bill telephone calls made from virtually any telephone to a calling card account. Generally, in order to use a calling card plan, it is necessary to first dial the calling card plan access number. Once connected to the access number, a user enters the calling card account number followed by a personal identification number (“PIN”). Once this information has been entered, the number to which the call is being placed may be dialed.
Persons using a calling card plan must therefore remember the calling card plan access number, which is typically ten digits, the account number, which also is typically ten digits, and a PIN, which may be four or five digits. For many calling plan users, remembering all of these numbers is too demanding, especially if they infrequently use the plan. Subscribers to calling card plans, therefore, often carry a physical card with the access number and account number on it. Furthermore, subscribers often write their PIN numbers on a piece of paper or on the calling card and refer to that paper or card when making calling plan calls.
In addition to having to remember these numbers, users of calling card plans must also correctly dial the calling card plan access number, account number, and PIN. The calling card plan access number can be ten digits in length. Likewise, the account number may be ten digits. The PIN may be an additional five digits. Thus, when using a calling card plan, simply getting to the point of being able to dial the number to which the user wishes to connect requires first correctly dialing up to twenty five digits. Dialing twenty-five digits without making a mistake can be a cumbersome task. Furthermore, repeatedly dialing these twenty-five digits can become monotonous and tiresome.
Pre-paid calling platforms and voice portals similarly require users to remember and repeatedly manually dial long strings of numbers. Indeed, even connecting to seven digit and ten digit telephone numbers requires remembering the telephone numbers and correctly manually keying the numbers using a keypad. For many adults, remembering frequently dialed telephone numbers is a difficult task. Children often have a difficult time remembering even a few very important numbers such as their home phone number or their parents' work number.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved mechanism for remembering and dialing telephone numbers. This is especially true of calls placed using services such as calling cards and pre-paid calling cards, which require entry of long strings of numbers.